“I’m a stay at home dad, and I couldn’t be happier”

For stay-at-home man Jack Morris, domestic life doesn’t make him feel any less masculine

For stay-at-home man Jack Morris, domestic life doesn’t make him feel any less masculine

“Aged 28, and a newly married man, I walked out of my job and found myself unemployed for the first time in my adult life. I was a police officer of seven years, a ‘job for life’ as society would have you believe. Well paid, respected (depending on who you’re talking to), a career to make your parents proud and impress new in-laws.

The general response was, “You’re going to be a stay-at-home dad, that’s cool, lots of guys do that these days”. Just one slight problem there. When I left work I didn’t have any children, and we weren’t expecting any either. I was simply a stay-at-home man.

To say men can’t look after the home for the good of their family would be as narrow-minded as saying women shouldn’t be offered the same career opportunities as men

So what does a stay-at-home man do? Well, the same things a housewife does, I guess. The commitments imposed by my wife’s work means she is glad to have me there each evening, rather than coming home at all hours. I bake, I clean, I organise house affairs, budgets and bills. I have dinner ready for her return every day, and I clean up afterwards. I’m a support network of one.

Do I feel any less masculine because of this? Not in the slightest. To say men can’t look after the home for the good of their family would be as narrow-minded as saying women shouldn’t be offered the same career opportunities as men.

A rather gross selfie taken six months into our marriage, complete with pee-covered stick, marked the second pregnancy test of that week. Four months in, and our little sprout was growing well. Despite my protests, we didn’t discover the gender. My wife wanted something to push for.

In July 2015 I was officially promoted from stay-at-home man to stay-at-home dad. It took 26 hours from contractions in a restaurant, to our son Toby taking his first breath. And there our next little adventure began.

My wife runs a successful business and has a baby – some might say she has it all. But does that then suggest I have nothing? My wife is the perfect mum, and our home life strikes the perfect balance. Having it all, it turns out, is all about what makes you happy, and we couldn’t be happier.”

This article was originally published by Being ManKind 

Images: Priya Dabasia for Being ManKind

Read our feature Rewriting the Man Code: the new masculinity

 


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